Chair Williams speaks on Shangri-Las and Kwanzaa resolutions
Chair Williams celebrates the Shangri-Las as a Queens girl group with six top 40 hits, then explains Kwanzaa's origins, seven principles, and her resolution to make it a public holiday in New York.
Thank you, Councilmember.
Now, let me say a few words about my resolutions as well.
Was there a greater girl group of the 1960s than the Shangri-La?
Those of us from Queens and their fans around the world would argue that there was not.
Lead vocalist Mary Weiss and her older sister Betty, who was the sole surviving member of the group, teamed up with the twins Marge and Mary Ann at Andrew Jackson High School in Cambria Heights, which is in my district, and made history with their Billboard Hot 100
number one hit, Leader of the Pack, in November 1964.
They knocked the Supremes'Baby Love out of number one spot.
The Shangri-La had six top 40 singles between 1964 and 1966, starting in the summer of 1964 with Remember Walking in the Sand, which climbed to number five on the Billboard Hot 100 and gave audiences its memorable, wrenching...
I'm not reading this out loud.
Oh, no, no, no lyric.
The Shangri-La, four teenagers from Queens, I'm going to kill Regina, because she created this, have influenced vocalists for the past 60 years, from the Ramones to Debbie Harry to Amy Winehouse.
No one did it better.
Kwanzaa is an African-American and Pan-African holiday honoring African history, culture, family, and community.
The word Kwanzaa comes from the Swahili words meaning first fruits and refers to the harvest festival celebrated in Africa.
Kwanzaa was created in 1966 by Dr.
Karinga, chair of Africana Studies.
At California State University in Long Beach and founder of the African American Cultural Center.
In his annual Kwanzaa message in December 2024, Karinga wrote that during Kwanzaa, we practiced a ritual of candle lighting called lifting up the light that lasts,
based not only on the history of our people and practice, but also from the sacred teachings of our ancestors.
Karinga explained the seven principles of Kwanzaa, which are unity, self-determination, collective work and responsibility, cooperative economics, purpose, creativity, and faith.
In 2012, President Obama wrote that Kwanzaa serves as a time of reflection, taking lessons learned from our past and looking forward to a more promised tomorrow.
He wrote that we must recommit ourselves to building a country where all Americans have the opportunity to achieve their dreams.
Making Kwanzaa the seven-day period beginning December 26 and ending January 1,
a public holiday for all New Yorkers statewide would reaffirm our state's commitment to diversity while designating a time for celebrating and preserving African Americans'heritage and honoring their contributions to the cultural, political, and economic life of all New Yorkers.